brainstorming for UDS-N - Hardware Compatibility

[Jussi Schultink]

On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 6:13 PM, Jorge O. Castro <jorge at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 10:35 AM, Daniel Chen <seven.steps at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 9:33 AM, Jorge O. Castro <jorge at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>>> Along the same lines it would be nice if the installer would try to
>>> get the backported drivers during installation if it finds that the
>>> shipped driver doesn't work. I had a machine during the Karmic cycle
>>> that needed a backported driver to get wireless, the only way I knew
>>> it was a trivial fix was that I knew about the package.
>>
>> Taking the case of a wireless driver needed from a backported kernel
>> or l-b-m, there would need to be additional logic to handle attempting
>> such a download only if a matching signed Ubuntu repository for that
>> release were reachable.  It seems reasonable enough.
>
> I was chatting with Evan about this on IRC and I've come up with a
> basic brainstormy idea that Jockey can provide: "I realize I'm on a
> notebook, but can't find wireless, I wonder if I can try harder and
> grab the backported kernel drivers? Please plug in a network cable"
> And if the user isn't close to ethernet maybe having a hook somewhere
> that does "I've noticed you've plugged into a wired connection, now
> would be a good time for me to go find your wireless driver, ok?"
> would be doable.
>
> Basically my gist is we already support a bunch of hardware it's just
> hard for users to find it sometimes and making an effort to improve
> that would be a nice low hanging fruit. (If it actually is low hanging
> fruit)
>
I like this, one of the greatest annoyances I have seen come up on IRC
is people who have wireless cards that need a driver, but they need to
get on the internet to get that driver. Catch22.

Also along these lines, many people I have come across are wanting to
have the ability to get updated drivers, but not get all the rest of
backports. perhaps some simple way of dividing backports/updates repos
up into sections so people can easily chose which parts they are
getting? (applications, drivers etc)

Jussi.
> ...
>
> --
> ubuntu-devel mailing list
> ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com
> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
>